Tech futures

Multiple jobs means juggling multiple techno things. I’m currently producing in two podcasts [it would have been three, but one is on hold], do the social media for two different jobs and am trying to run a charity in my spare time. The latter means I have to do everything from opening a business account, dealing with the regulator, managing a website, running a fundraising campaign and more.

I am not, by any stretch of the imagination a technological person. Ask my kids. They left the room very quickly on Friday evening when I told them I had to put the fundraising regulator badge on the charity website. They knew that spelt trouble. And it was tricky because Wix doesn’t seem intuitive [at least it doesn’t work in line with my intuition. I’m starting to challenge all these things now that used to make me feel useless], but I did it and I felt very proud of myself. Every small step is a victory.

Ditto Instagram, which I have avoided up to now. I had it from a while back, but I never used it really because I am not a very visual type person. I forget to take photos, even at the best of times. I hate being in them. I’d rather just experience things without a camera. But the world is becoming ever more visual, plus Twitter/X is now dying and deservedly so, and that means Instagram is becoming more of a necessity for work – as is LinkedIn and all the many things it can do that I haven’t had time to investigate heretofore.

So I’ve found myself trying to think up interesting visual things, short videos etc. I’m not very good at it. My daughter’s best friend is in charge of the charity’s Instagram and she is a natural. I have to force myself to do it. The thing is marketing – which is what I think it essentially boils down to – and journalism are two very different things or at least they used to be in most areas of journalism. Now the two are much more blurred. You have to sell your story all the time and that’s hard if you’re writing about a report on a particular aspect of social policy. That shouldn’t mean that that particular aspect doesn’t get covered unless it is about some extreme position on it. Maybe it will turn out to be absolutely intrinsic to the very fabric of our society. Maybe all the problems we are having with misinformation will be a wake-up moment for us when it comes to valuing good information more, but, on the other hand, misinformation will probably only get worse with deep fakes and the like.

Which brings me back to technology. Last week I interviewed an expert on generative AI and its impact on job search and jobs in general. It was very broad brush. Ironically, there were some technology problems with getting the interview started. I blamed Zoom [the audio doesn’t function on my computer for some reason which I have tried to investigate, but cannot fathom]. The expert said technology is rarely to blame; people are. Which is true. I was ignorant of what was causing my technological problems. But maybe the technology has to be improved or the people using it better supported. Once you know how to resolve any of the many problems it throws up, it should be plain sailing – or there’s always the age-old solution of workarounds. As a parent, my whole life is built on workaround solutions, essentially because there is not enough time in the day to figure everything out. I did the zoom interview on my phone.

• Vote  
• 0
• 0
• You already voted!